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Unplugged: The Key to Longer Laptop Battery Life

In order to squeeze as much life out of your lithium-polymer battery,
once your laptop hits 100 percent, unplug it. In fact, you should
unplug it before that.

Cadex Electronics
CEO Isidor Buchmann told WIRED that ideally everyone would charge their
batteries to 80 percent then let them drain to about 40 percent. This
will prolong the life of your battery — in some cases by as much as four
times. The reason is that each cell in a lithium-polymer battery is
charged to a voltage level. The higher the charge percentage, the higher
the voltage level. The more voltage a cell has to store, the more
stress it’s put under. That stress leads to fewer discharge cycles. For
example, Battery University
states that a battery charged to 100 percent will have only 300-500
discharge cycles, while a battery charged to 70 percent will get
1,200-2,000 discharge cycles.